Bill to Require Sanctions On Lawyers Passes House

By CARL HULSE

Published: September 15, 2004

Taking aim at the nation's trial lawyers and what it says is a glut of unnecessary legal actions, the Republican-led House approved a measure on Tuesday requiring sanctions against lawyers who file lawsuits deemed frivolous.

The legislation, passed on a 229-to-174 vote, was one of four court-related measures taken up by the House in an election-year push to spotlight Republican efforts to reduce litigation.

Both the House and Senate also worked to ease a backlog of spending bills that need to be completed by Oct. 1, with the House moving ahead with an $89.9 billion measure for the Treasury and Transportation Departments that includes a raise of about 2.5 percent for members of Congress. On a 235-to-170 procedural vote, lawmakers dodged a direct vote on the pay increase. Senators neared completion of a $33.1 billion measure for the Department of Homeland Security.

The House leadership dubbed its effort Lawsuit Abuse Prevention Week, but Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the majority leader, also said it was ''John Edwards Appreciation Week.'' Senator Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, had a successful career as a trial lawyer, and has said he backs such penalties for frivolous lawsuits.

The Senate is considered unlikely to take up the House bill this year.

Republicans said the mandatory penalties -- including payment of court costs and lawyers' fees, followed by potential contempt citations and disciplinary procedures for repeat incidents -- were needed to end nuisance lawsuits that they said were driving companies out of business and costing consumers.

Democrats said the measure could have a ''chilling effect'' on bringing suits and could make it harder for less-affluent Americans to retain legal counsel if lawyers were nervous about facing sanctions. They accused Republicans of wasting time with frivolous legislation and said it represented a needless Congressional intrusion into local court matters.

''Give the decision back to the courthouse, and let's have a fair judicial system for all,'' said Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat of Texas.

The legislation would change what is known as Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and require courts to impose penalties if a lawsuit is deemed frivolous. According to the Judicial Conference of the United States, a group of judges who make policy for the federal courts, any penalties have been left to a judge's discretion since 1993 after a 1983 decision to make them automatic was determined to have backfired.

''It spawned thousands of court decisions and generated widespread criticism,'' Leonidas Ralph Mecham, secretary of the judicial conference, wrote in a letter to Congress spelling out the organization's objections to the bill. ''The rule was abused by resourceful lawyers, and an entire 'cottage industry' developed that churned tremendously wasteful satellite litigation that had everything to do with strategic gamesmanship and little to do with underlying claims.''

The House proposal would abolish a provision that allows those filing a lawsuit to escape any sanctions if the suit is withdrawn within 21 days of a motion for sanctions being filed.

House members also easily passed two measures meant to reduce civil liability for those who donate equipment to volunteer fire departments and for pilots who volunteer their expertise during local emergencies. A measure providing some immunity for interscholastic sports organizations was blocked when it failed to win a sufficient majority under House rules for considering less contentious measures.

The Republican majority in the House has sought to exert authority over the courts with other bills this year, passing a measure in July that would prohibit federal courts from overturning parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. And lawmakers are expected to take up a bill soon that would prevent judges from hearing legal challenges to the inclusion of the phrase ''under God'' in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Although such bills have largely been successful in the House and have provided political fodder for both parties, they have received little attention in the Senate, where the rules make it easier to block such legislation and there is little room on the agenda in the few weeks remaining in the session.

''It is not going to get through here,'' a top Republican Senate aide said Tuesday about the frivolous-lawsuit measure.